TH!NK post

CzechGlobe Is Here!

Coming from a country whose president Vaclav Klaus is famous for being a climate change sceptic it is a pleasure to be announced that despite his opinions a scientific climate change programme has started this autumn.

It is called CzechGlobe and has become one of the most important research projects in modern Czech history launched. The cost is over 750 million CZK (€30 mil) financed by Ministry of Education and Operational Programme for Research and will involve about 150 research-scientific workers, both experienced scientists as well as young scientists and doctoral students.

As the CzechGlobe website states: "Resolution of CzechGlobe project is based on three basic questions:

1. Is the biosphere of the Earth able to absorb carbon, which is induced to the atmosphere by humans, and thus reduce the size of greenhouse effect leading to the Global Climate Change?

2. Are terrestrial ecosystems really the most vulnerable part among all carbon sinks of the Earth?

3. Is the development of human society in the context of Global Climate Change sustainable?"

„Our long-term measurements show that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is clearly and explicitly growing. The concentration changed in the past as well, but lately the growth of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been of an exponential nature. As a result, today and everyday significant changes have been happening not only in Antarctica or Greenland, but in our Central Europe as well.

These changes in Europe, in terms of the media, are not as visually impressive as a piece of a collapsing glacier.

However, this does not mean that we can ignore them. On the contrary. They are responsible, for instance, for more and more frequent climatic extremes that affect us fundamentally. We all know that floods in the Czech Republic have always been here, but if we have got a cent-year's flood three times over the period of twenty years, we can feel and perceive that the frequency of climate extremes is increasing. It is our duty, if we really want to be good protectors of our country, to get ready for these changes", said the CzechGlobe project director, professor Michal Marek“ on the website of the project (link below).

CzechGlobe is not focused on the Czech Republic only, it falls in European research structures, Airborne Remote Sensing of the Earth (EUFAR), ESFRI (the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) among others. Czech scientists will cooperate with several research centres, eg. Agro-environmental and Forest Biology and the National Research Institute in Rome.

Many institutions such as NASA have already shown their interest in findings though the research itself is going to last for several years. It will be interesting to see whether the same concern over the results will express president Klaus in coming years, and whether he will stick to opinions he currently posses also in the future.

Comments

Who are kings of the jungle: lions or zebras? Add a questionmark to your answer. (6 character(s) required)

About the author

Radka LankasovaCzech RepublicCoach

I am a coach & HR consultant and also a keen blogger with interest in the world around me, especially sustainability and education. I will try to write about things I consider important, interesting, can influence and/or change and also good news as there is never enough of it.